The Bloomberg administration, which has long advocated phasing out the container port in Brooklyn to make way for more residential-friendly development, may decide to keep the shipping facility there after all.

Ironically, the latest reprieve comes not from Governor Spitzer, a Democrat who many port advocates thought would jump to their side, but from the very same people who had been trying to recalibrate the use of the piers for the past four years: the city’s Economic Development Corporation. Or rather, not from the same people, but a new set of executives who recently came into office there.

In January, Robert Lieber, a former managing director for Lehman Brothers, became president of the E.D.C., filling a spot that Andrew Alper vacated the previous spring. Around the same time, the E.D.C.’s project manager for Red Hook, Kate Ascher, left. Last month, she was replaced by Madelyn Wils, the former president of the Tribeca Film Festival and a community leader from Lower Manhattan.

“We are looking for a long-term plan for the Brooklyn waterfront and that is something that Bob Lieber has asked us to do,” said Ms. Wils, the new executive vice president for planning and development. “I understand there is a lot of history here and I’m just trying to look at this, along with our whole team, with a fresh set of eyes.”

But the battle is far from over for American Stevedoring Inc., the shipping operator that revived the container port in the 1990’s and that has more recently staved off condominium conversion through a mixture of savvy public relations, strategic campaign contributions, lawsuits and its record of providing numerous union jobs.

Ms. Wils said that the agency was considering keeping the container port but inviting bids from other companies as well as from American Stevedoring.

“We haven’t made any firm decisions but we are certainly looking at putting out an RFEI for a container port,” Ms. Wils said, referring to a request for expressions of interest. That would mean that other shipping operators could get a shot.

“We want to see what the market is, to test the waters and see if we can create a market that is looking at delivering goods to the east and north of Red Hook and not necessarily to the west,” Ms. Wils said.

ONE OF THE INEFFICIENCIES OF the port is that, while Red Hook is the only container port on the east side of New York Harbor, cargo is sometimes sent back over to New Jersey or Staten Island by barge because there are better distribution channels on that side.

In the past, both the Bloomberg administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the piers, played down the idea that Red Hook would ever amount to anything. The container port there is much smaller than the region’s other ports on Staten Island and in New Jersey, and it lacks any rail connection or much upland storage space, necessitating the use of barges.

The city, meanwhile, became worried when it began losing cruise ship business to New Jersey, and decided that the deep Red Hook harbor could supplement the terminal on Manhattan’s West Side. In 2003, the E.D.C. and the Port Authority began holding community meetings and hiring consultants, which suggested including as many as 3,600 units of housing on the site, up to three cruise ships berths and other uses.

But the agencies have met stiff resistance from American Stevedoring Inc., which has been backed by local residents who want to hold onto a vestige of the working waterfront, and from elected leaders, who cite the port as a job generator. The company earlier this year estimated that it unloads about 150,000 containers a year and employs 765 people full-time, counting workers and drivers at the container port, a bulk cargo unloading area and warehouses.

The E.D.C. said the real employment number was closer to 100 jobs, but the agency’s credibility was severely hampered because a cruise ship terminal, which opened on one of the former cargo piers in Red Hook last year, has produced just eight to 10 permanent full-time jobs, with about another 200 to 225 when a ship comes in.

City Council Member David Yassky, a longtime supporter of the container port, welcomed the E.D.C.’s new approach but said that ASI should be retained as the operator.

“I give Bob Lieber and Madelyn Wils a great deal of credit for coming in and seeing this was a policy that was really in need of fixing, and they have made a ton of progress,” he said. “To me, we have a scrappy shipping operation already on the piers, and I think the city should be focused on helping that shipping operation grow. I personally don’t see the need for further delay with an RFEI.”

ASI has contributed to the political campaigns of Mr. Yassky and other elected officials who support the container port.

But the council member said that his support was solely predicated on the fact that ASI offered “good-paying jobs for people without advanced degrees.”

ASI would not comment, but in an interview earlier this year, Matt Yates, its director of commercial operations, told The Observer that the company had lost 52 deals because of uncertainty over the container port’s future. ASI has been operating without a lease since April, when its contract with the Port Authority ran out.

In February, the Port Authority signed an agreement that would turn over ownership of the piers to the city once the Economic Development Corporation received approval for rezoning the piers. The rezoning, a preliminary version of which became public last fall, would allow other uses, such as a beer garden, a brewery, a beverage shipping operation, a marina and some housing. Within weeks, the E.D.C. backed off of its plan for housing. Now, according to Ms. Wils, the entire rezoning is on hold, as are any plans to turn another pier into a second cruise ship berth.

“We see no imminent need for another cruise ship terminal,” she said.

Meanwhile, the city in February received a number of responses to a request for proposals to use an inlet along the waterfront, Pier 11, which is already controlled by the E.D.C. Ms. Wils said those proposals were still under consideration.

Another parcel used by American Stevedoring, Pier 7, is wrapped up in litigation between the company and the Port Authority, which is forcing two potential tenants that the E.D.C. had wanted to move in there instead, Phoenix Beverages Group and Brooklyn Brewery, to consider other locations.

The new E.D.C. president, Mr. Lieber, was out of town and unavailable for an interview, but a spokeswoman said in an e-mail, “Our long-range vision continues to focus on striking a balance between job creation, public waterfront access, and preserving Red Hook’s unique maritime character.”

In the meantime, ASI is apparently safe.

“We are continuing to work with the EDC for a long-term plan for the piers,” Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said. “ASI will continue its operations until the city is ready to put into place any plan that it comes up with.”